Rio Ferdinand blames David Moyes' mixed-messages for failure

Rio Ferdinand's 12-year Manchester United career came to an end over the summer when the 35-year-old made the switch to London, to join his former West Ham manager Harry Redknapp at Queens Park Rangers.

It is rare in today's modern footballing world that a manager lasts longer than a few seasons at the same club, but Ferdinand was lucky enough during a career at Old Trafford that included 455 appearances and six Premier League titles, to only play under two different bosses.

Sir Alex Ferguson, who was in charge for 11 of Rio's 12 years, finally left his post as United manager after winning his 13th Premier League title in an incredible 27 years at the club between 1986 - 2013.

But it appears that with Fergie left a lot of the Reds' philosophies and ideas that had been so prevalent during the Scotsman's reign.

The man given the opportunity to take over from Sir Alex was 'The Chosen One', David Moyes - the former Everton gaffer hand-picked by Ferguson to take over his realm and continue to lead the club to further greatness.

But things quickly took a turn for the worst and Moyes was sacked just 10 months into his dream job with the Champions.

Last week, the ex-England defender released his autobiography, #2Sides, which gives an in-depth look into his career and personal life.

Missed Ferguson's influence

Prior to the official unveiling, Rio spoke to Clare Balding regarding the period of time that the 51-year-old was in charge of the club, and how different things with him as boss compared to Sir Alex.

"Obviously I've been lucky to stay with Sir Alex Ferguson for my whole time at Manchester United by the last year" said the QPR defender.

"You kind of don't really appreciate what you've got 'til it's gone sometimes and this was a point that it happened, it just was real," he added.

Having to adapt to a new manager's ideas after 11 years with another boss must be difficult, and Rio admits it was a struggle to interpret the ideas Moyes was trying to implicate.

Good start

The retired 81-cap star said: "The new manager came in and as I said there were things that he said at the beginning, you want to win and whatever he says is the gospel.

"So whatever he says to you, 'listen I want you to run through brick walls at 60 miles per hour and turn left when you come out of that wall', you're doing it because you want to win, you want to add to anything that you've achieved and keep winning."

And it seemed to work; after Moyes' first three matches in charge, the team picked up seven points from a possible nine, scoring six and conceding just one.

So where did it all go wrong for the former Preston North End manager?

Mixed messages cost United

Ferdinand says: "After a period of time when things don't add up what he's saying and they don't make sense to you, and it's kind of mixed-messages coming, that's when you start thinking to yourself, 'wow, if I think he doesn't believe it, how can I believe it?'.

"That's the way I kind of saw it and that's why it was important for me to be writing that in this book.

"Because I look at it like 'I'm one of the fans and I'm sitting in a pub with my mates wondering what the hell is going on at my football club', and that's the kind of angle that I kind of was looking to write this book from."

From Rio's comments, it appears the manager started to lose the dressing room and with this came poor results that saw them slide down the table.

United finished last season in seventh position, their worst league finish since 1990. Moyes left the club in April, but the damage had already been done by then.

New era

Since then, Ferdinand has moved on to QPR, with former Netherlands manager Louis van Gaal taking over at Old Trafford.

After the signings of Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Ander Herrera, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo, they are hopeful of bringing success back to the red-half of Manchester, and despite slightly porous defensive performances thus far, it appears the effect of the Dutchman's arrival is slowly starting to pay dividends.

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